SAP S/4HANA Reviews

We've integrated SAP S/4HANA into our implementation projects for customers, not internally. We use SAP S/4HANA for real-time analytics and decision-making. 

It helps us provide customers with better visibility, forecasting, and smart data for decision-making. This streamlines our business processes, enhancing operational efficiency, saving costs, and providing a 360-degree view of our business processes.

We leverage the finance and add-on modules of SAP S/4HANA, including Alibaba integration, CRM integration, and production planning. These features are highly configurable and provide excellent visibility into our systems. While I appreciate the introduction of in-memory computing as a feature, I haven't had the opportunity to delve deep into this feature. 

It would be beneficial if the pricing structure could be made more flexible and adaptable to suit the needs of different organizations. Besides this, the scalability also needs improvement.

I believe support could be improved by providing more specific and detailed answers rather than generic responses.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for the past six years. 

It is stable.

The scalability could be made easier. While it's theoretically scalable, there are practical challenges and complexities that could be addressed for better flexibility and scalability.

The technical support needs to improve. 

The installation is not very simple, rather complex and dependent on the systems. The maintenance can be challenging due to frequent product changes and a lack of subject matter experts for quality support. It's essential to have a strategic approach to understand product changes before implementing them to ensure stability.

SAP S/4HANA has its pros and cons like any other product. It offers a lot of features, particularly the robust finance module and supply chain capabilities. However, there are areas like HR processes that could use improvement. Overall, it's a good product that competes well based on factors such as pricing, flexibility, scalability, and configuration options. I will rate it seven out of ten.

Customers reach out to me when they have challenges related to licensing and contracting costs associated with it.  

Customer choose this solution because they want to transition away from Oracle or because they are compelled to go for SAP.

Oracle has its own data center, hardware, virtualization layer, and database. They offer a complete solution, which SAP currently can't match. This is a weak point in SAP's proposition.

I have been using this solution for the last 20 years.

It is a stable solution. 

It is a very scalable solution. We have enterprise-level businesses using this solution. 

The customer service and support are average. There is room for improvement in response time. 

Neutral

It is easy to install. Our clients deploy it on the cloud or on-premises.

It's quite expensive. However, it can be expensive to maintain the solution. 

The licensing varies because I serve multiple customers, and there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. There are additional costs for technical support and consulting

I have a background in Oracle, I'm making a few comparisons between Oracle and SAP. I fully understand SAP's strategy to move their customers to S/4HANA. However, when we consider the developments in ERP suites in the cloud, especially Oracle's approach compared to SAP's,  I lean more towards Oracle from a solution perspective. Oracle provides a native cloud solution that integrates everything seamlessly. 

On the other hand, SAP, especially if you're using the right solution, essentially involves deploying older on-premises SAP software on a hyperscaler, which we refer to as a "cloudified" solution. This, in my opinion, isn't as strong in the overall proposition.

I would recommend thoroughly evaluating other options and ensuring a clear understanding of the associated risks and costs before making a decision.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there is always room for improvement and SAP lacks a native cloud solution.

It is a great product to be implemented for different industries for my customers. Can it be used globally?

The latest version from SAP is highly valued. It is an easily enabled platform from SAP, and represents the next generation of ERP solutions.

There could be a bit more competitiveness in their licensing and pricing.

I have used the solution for three to five years.

I would rate customer service a ten out of ten.

Positive

SAP is not selling on-premise to any customer.

Overall, I would rate the product ten out of ten.

We use the solution for a retail customer. As an administrator, my activities involve system installation, troubleshooting, and performance management.

The tool could improve development, particularly during upgrades or conversions from ERP systems to the solution. Adapting the code to the new standards can be challenging, especially when customers try to keep their old ERP developments.

I have been using the product since 2018. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

SAP S/4HANA's scalability is good. 

I have contacted SAP's technical support, mainly for incidents rather than during installation. They're about 90% accurate, but sometimes they can be slow or misunderstand the issue.

Positive

The product's deployment is easy and fast. The deployment time varies depending on the scenario and environment. From development to production, it can take a few weeks. Starting the development system doesn't take long if you have all the preparations done - like sizing, setting up the final systems, and accessing them.

The tool's licensing is very expensive. They've changed their licensing model from the old ERP system to a new model using FUEs, which is somewhat better but still expensive.

I'm not directly involved in financial operations. However, from conversations with colleagues in finance, I understand there have been improvements since using the tool. The main challenge is often user resistance to change, as they're used to working with the previous system.

I advise new users to get an overview or take a course to understand the system's capabilities. Preparing the end-users for the implementation is crucial, especially when moving from old systems to new ones.

I rate the product a nine out of ten. It's a really powerful tool that has been improving since around 2016. The improvements in the Fiori interface and its integration with the system are particularly impressive.

SAP S/4HANA is primarily employed for data analysis and analytics. It involves engaging with data within the platform to perform analytics and generate insights, focusing on optimizing data collection and analysis at the database level.

The ability to optimize performance by allowing both data transactions and analytics on a single platform is particularly valuable. This dual capability enhances the efficiency of data handling and analysis, making it a crucial feature for effective data management.

The platform could improve by simplifying the analytics processes, which currently require significant preparatory work outside the platform. This aspect can be cumbersome and detract from the otherwise streamlined experience.

I would like to see the inclusion of more integrated tools that allow for direct analytics and calculations within the platform itself. This would reduce the need for extensive data preprocessing, which is currently a necessity.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for six months. 

SAP S/4HANA is highly scalable, particularly due to its model-driven development approach, which allows for efficient data integration and analysis as our needs grow.

The solution's deployment is still in the development phase, and we have yet to go live. Therefore, I have yet to have the opportunity to require or evaluate customer service or support.

Before adopting S/4HANA, I used SAP ECC and Tableau. The switch was driven by the need for more advanced features and the discontinuation of support for the older system.

The deployment is still in the development phase. 

 The solution might be expensive. 

The solution might be expensive, an important consideration for any organization looking to adopt it.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

We use the solution as an enterprise application. 

The tool's most valuable features are ease of use, high availability, and connectivity. 

The product should improve its cost. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten.

I rate SAP S/4HANA's scalability a seven out of ten. My company has 2000 users who use it daily. 

I rate the tool's ease of deployment an eight out of ten. 

A third-party consultant helped us with the deployment. 

SAP S/4HANA is expensive. 

We evaluated Oracle before SAP S/4HANA. 

I rate the overall product a six out of ten. 

Our company implements the solution for customers. It is used for order management, finance, purchasing, and manufacturing. We currently have two customers using the solution. 

The solution's new UI called Fiori is user friendly.

The solution is very easy to integrate.

The solution is complex technically because both an old and a new path exist. Some more development work is needed for Fiori before a complete switchover can happen. Right now, they are enhancing and developing Fiori. In two to five years, things may change because Fiori will be finished and in the market. 

I have been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

Technical support could be better so I rate it a five out of ten. 

Neutral

The setup is complex. We were given instructions but setup was not easy. 

We implement the solution for customers. Implementation can take between six months to two years depending on the scope and customer. 

The pricing model is based on an annual license. 

I recommend the solution for big companies because they have a lot of SAP users and can handle the specs of implementation. I do not recommend the solution for mid-sized or small companies because there won't be enough users or support. 

Because two systems are being used within the solution as it iterates over to Fiori, the system is currently very technically complex. A lot of workarounds are needed and this creates a bad experience for customers. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

There are a lot of options for deploying S/4HANA. It depends on the industry and the customer's budget. It is usually deployed on-premise in the public sector, but tech companies mostly choose the cloud option.

SAP provides you with single-tenant and multi-tenant options when you opt for the public cloud. When it is a single tenant, it's typically a private cloud managed by SAP, but the customer's budget also factors in. If they're working with a large budget, a customer might opt for a public cloud, but government clients might opt for a completely on-premise solution because of data security regulations. 

Most of our customers plan to move to S/4HANA. We usually start with central finance and later prepare a migration plan. By the time we're ready to deploy, SAP may have released a new version, so the customer might choose the latest edition depending on their budget go for the latest version, or they may only be interested in whatever version was on the market when we were in the planning stage.

S/4HANA is so much faster today than it was before. High performance is one of the best features, but the backbone of S/4HANA is its integration capabilities. They've also shifted to a focus on user experience. 

The UIs used to be slightly boring, but the user experience has dramatically improved since the acquisition of Sybase, Callidus, and several other companies. SAP stays ahead of the curve and is constantly improving. If you want a feature, they're already working on it. It's one of the best ERP solutions on the market.

The ERP market is competitive, and other solutions may have advantages over S/4HANA in some industries. I work in fintech, and central finance is essential to all industries. S/4HANA provides all the features there, but when you talk about ranking the industries, manufacturing would be No. 1.

Initially, S/4HANA was getting bested by PeopleSoft in the HR sector. Now, they are catching up. In particular, SAP wasn't strong in expense management, but they acquired a company last year and Ariba several years back. Their SRM was not hit. 

We've been using S/4HANA for the last two and a half years.

S/4HANA is stable. Many companies were skeptical because it was costly and untested. It has proven far more stable than people had expected. People thought they would only switch to SAP in 2025 once the solution had matured and provided services, ECC, etc. However, customers are now willing to spend on S/4HANA because they see it's stable and stacks up well against other ERP solutions.

S/4HANA is highly scalable because of the cloud, and it integrates with various publicly available software, it is highly scalable. S/4HANA has always been scalable, and now you have more ways to scale up with the subscription model as well as the multi-tenant and the single-tenant deployment options. Scalability is never a question.

SAP support provides resolves all our problems, but the response time is slower than our customers expect. Maybe it's because they have such a large customer base and are always occupied, but that's one area all our customers mention.

S/4HANA implementation is always complex because you need to configure it to work with your infrastructure. SAP only provides the license, not hardware, but they will connect you with a partner like HPE or IBM.

It's extremely costly if you ask for SAP to implement it, but you can deploy through some vendor like HCL, TC, Infosys, or Capgemini, and then you need to enlist a hardware partner. 

The complexity also varies by industry. If it's a small industry with $40 million of revenue annually, the business processes will be simple. However, deployment is tricky for heavy manufacturing, energy, etc.

Pricing is one area where S/4HANA has room for improvement. It's too costly for many people. They have come up with the subscription-based model also. The annual cost is $3,000 per user.

The only other expense is maintenance, but if you're paying for a subscription, you don't need to pay anything. However, there is a minimum commitment of $100,000.

Maintenance is always calculated as a percentage of your annual spending. For example, if you have implemented the solution, and it costs you $10 million in your first year, roughly 20 to 25 percent will be the operating cost. That is the maintenance fee SAP will charge. You will pay $2 million on a $10 million budget. 

You can think of that $2 million as $100,000 you would pay per employee to a team of consultants. If a company is relatively small and only implemented a few million, then we would recommend that they buy SAP business and outsource all the non-SAP activities.

I rate SAP S/4HANA nine out of 10. If you want digitization in your organization, go for it. S/4HANA is advanced and highly integrable. It's one of the best ERP solutions, but it depends on your budget because SAP is always costly.

The solution supports our business transformation process.

The features related to finance are beneficial for our day-to-day operations. It is easy to integrate the solution with other systems.

The initial setup was difficult.

I have been using the solution for three years.

We did not face any problems with the product’s stability.

I rate the product’s scalability an eight out of ten. We have 500 users in our organization. We use the tool daily.

The deployment took one year.

A third-party integrator helped us with the deployment. We needed 40 people for the deployment and three people for maintenance.

The product is expensive. The price must be improved.

I will recommend the tool to others. It is a good solution. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We use the solution for transaction purposes.

SAP S/4HANA has streamlined financial operations and supply chain management.

The processing time has been reduced, and the screens have become more intuitive, leading to a faster user experience. Additionally, the integration has improved by 30%. The introduction of new tools, including cellular apps, has made system configuration and readiness much simpler. Compared to previous versions, the latest upgrades offer enhanced features and pre-configured solutions, making them highly beneficial.

SAP S/4HANA is a robust front-end solution compared to other web technologies available. However, screen design in SAP EFI might not be as extensive.

I have been using SAP S/4HANA for one year.

200 users are using this solution. SAP S/4HANA is scalable, and the availability of support from others reassures us that scalability shouldn't be a problem.

When seeking assistance, we typically prefer to hold an annual company support conference. When requesting support, we ask for the SCC and some additional support. 

Neutral

The solution is easy to configure.

The product is affordable.

SAP S/4HANA has improved the response time of all applications. This improvement was noticeable within just two months of implementation.

Developing a system can be time-consuming, but once it's developed, a set of licensing elements is in place. Companies in India do not extensively utilize solution management. Consequently, we face challenges in storing documentation alongside our projects within the system. Exploring alternative methods for storing these documents within the project would be beneficial. However, it's important to note that companies in India may not prioritize solution management as extensively as elsewhere.

The data consistency and integration have been addressed effectively. This has greatly supported us without extensive customization regarding invoicing and other features within SAP.

SAP S/4HANA is more like an extensive, sophisticated system than a giant airline. It's designed to handle large-scale operations efficiently. While it's true that smaller businesses may find it more challenging to adopt due to its complexity and cost, many mid-sized and large enterprises are utilizing it. Different deployment options are available, such as on-premise or cloud-based solutions catering to various business needs. Additionally, while SAP S/4HANA is primarily known for its ERP capabilities, it also offers modules for HR management. However, some industries have found the HR implementation process to be cumbersome.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.